The Turkish UNIFIL Troops Set off for Lebanon

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Oct 19 2006

Thursday , 19 October 2006

A. Noyan Ozkaya, JTW (Ankara) – Some part of the Turkish military unit
to participate in the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL II)
set off on Thursday from Mersin Port. 95 soldiers of the 261-strong
engineering company left the Mersin Port after a sending-off
ceremony. The rest of the land unit will be sent on Friday by air
from Ankara to Beirut, and non-military vehicles will be sent overland
through Syria. The Turkish military unit is commanded by a major and
is composed of 261 personnel, 24 of which are civil engineers and 63
engineering vehicles, including non-military ones.

The Turkish engineering unit will be located in the village of
ash-Shaatiyah, 8 km. southeast of Tyre (Sour), and is expected to
help rebuild damaged bridges and roads. The initial location of the
Turkish troops was Baqbuq, a village in the south of Tyre, but it
was changed two days ago to ash-Shaatiyah because of the risk posed
by undiscovered landmines beneath the would-be headquarters of the
Turkish contingents in Baqbuq.

Besides the land units, a frigate from the Turkish Naval Forces
was sent to Lebanon on October 6. The frigate, TCG Gaziantep, began
patrolling off the Lebanese coast on October 15. The frigate includes
234 military staff and is commanded by a lieutenant colonel.

Turkish troops are the first Muslim peacekeepers to arrive in Lebanon
for the expanded UN force.

The Lebanese political leaders, including Hizbullah, have given their
consent for the participation of the Turkish troops in the peacekeeping
force. Turkish participation in the UNIFIL II is opposed only by
the Armenian community, with an estimated population of 150.000, or
nearly 4% of the Lebanese population. On October 13, an estimated 5.000
Armenians in Lebanon protested Turkey’s participation in the UN force.